PHOTO GALLERYThe owner of nearly every scoring record for New Haven women’s soccer, Crystal Lindsay was the offensive force behind one of the best four-year stretches in program history. A 2006 All-America honoree and two-time conference player of the year, Lindsay scored a program record 82 goals in her career while leading the Chargers to their only two NCAA postseason appearances to date.
In addition to her 82 goals – which rank 17th all-time in NCAA Division II – Lindsay racked up the second-most assists in New Haven history with 21 to round out a program-best 185 career points. She is the only player to average more than one goal per match (1.04) in her career with the Blue and Gold and one of only two student-athletes to lead the Chargers in goals for four consecutive seasons.
September hat tricks against Teikyo-Post and NYIT were a sign of things to come for Lindsay in 2003. The freshman went on to score a team-high 16 goals, which at the time marked the second-most in single-season history at New Haven, en route to New York Collegiate Athletic Conference Rookie of the Year and First Team All-NYCAC honors.
Lindsay would establish and then surpass the single-season goals record in each of her final three seasons, beginning with a 21-goal campaign as a sophomore in 2004. She also added 11 assists to set the standard of 53 points that remains atop the all-time list at New Haven. The Chargers would post a winning record for the first time in four seasons at 11-7-1 and finished third in the NYCAC as Lindsay again claimed first team all-conference laurels as well as an NSCAA Second Team All-Northeast Region selection. During that campaign, she would net four goals in a win over American International and tally two more hat tricks against Concordia and Saint Thomas Aquinas.
The 2005 season remains the most successful in New Haven women’s soccer history. With Lindsay scoring 22 goals to lead the way, the Chargers won the NYCAC regular season title and earned the program’s first-ever berth in the NCAA postseason. New Haven traveled to the Northeast Regional and recorded a 1-0 double-overtime win over C.W. Post before falling to the host and top seed, West Chester. The Blue and Gold recorded a program-record 17 wins that fall and earned its highest-ever national ranking, climbing to No. 10 in Division II as a part of 11 weeks spent in the top-25 poll. Lindsay was selected as the NYCAC Player of the Year and NSCAA First Team All-Northeast Region.
In her final season at New Haven, Lindsay established the current single-season record with 23 goals as a part of a 50-point senior season. The NYCAC had been re-branded as the East Coast Conference, and Lindsay repeated as the Player of the Year in 2006 and became the first student-athlete to earn four consecutive first-team honors from the conference. The Chargers continued to excel in 2006, playing to a 12-5-4 record and a return trip to the NCAA Northeast Regional.
Lindsay capped her career with an NSCAA Second Team All-America nod and was chosen as the 2006 University of New Haven Female Athlete of the Year. The Chargers went 47-24-9 during Lindsay’s four-year career and established single-season records for goals, assists, points and wins that remain atop the program record books.
